Family Resemblance
by Sarah1281
Summary: Carver can see how much his sister resents their uncle and their mother is disappointed with him but he just can't see to hate him. He sees too much of himself in Gamlen and that's rather alarming. He really has to find that purpose of his soon.


Family Resemblance

Disclaimer: I do not own Dragon Age.

Note: So despite the fact I've beaten the game with a rogue and am still pretty early on with a mage, I feel compelled to write about _Carver_ first. Go figure.

Carver returned to his uncle's hovel alone that night.

He didn't think that Salomé would actually let Isabela talk her into patronizing the Blooming Rose but he certainly wasn't going to stay and find out. She probably wouldn't publically reveal herself to be a mage and call the templars down on her and if she did then at least Isabela would be there with her so he didn't need to be.

Truth be told, he was a little relieved to have some time away from his darling sister. It was remarkable, really. He and Salomé had been together throughout the entirety of their time in Kirkwall. Everything she'd done, he'd been right there beside her doing it as well. So why was it that she was the only one anyone was ever interested in?

And then there were the people they were running with now. Isabela was alright (tonight's diversion notwithstanding) but _Anders_? How the proud son of a mage father and brother of (twin, even, in one case) of two mage sisters could honestly be accused of hating people for their magic was beyond him.

So what if his father and Bethany had been long-dead before he'd even heard of Anders? Even if he and Salomé didn't exactly get along – through no fault of his own, of course – she was still his sister and he didn't _hate_ her. Anders might be used to people hating him because he was a mage but that didn't mean that that was the only reason anyone could have for disliking him.

In fact, while Carver was sure that Anders faced his share of prejudice for being a mage, he wouldn't be surprised if a great deal of that hate came from things _other_ than Anders' mage status. Like, say, the fact that he was an abomination. Or the fact that he wouldn't shut up about mages and their plight. Honestly, if everyone would just let mages be then no one would be happier than he. If it had been that way growing up then the family wouldn't have always had to hide and move around and if it were like that now then he wouldn't need to be on the lookout for suspicious templars even as they struggled to survive.

Just the same, he sometimes liked to think about _other_ things and the only other thing Anders would talk about was bloody cats. A demon with a cat fetish. Well, he was sure he'd seen weirder things even if he couldn't actually think of any right now. His mother was the only other non-mage in his house growing up, after all.

Lastly, there was Varric. Varric was a good drinking buddy and had talked them out of many a difficult situation but he did have some annoying habits. Namely, the fact he wouldn't stop waxing poetic on the virtues of remaining overshadowed by your sibling. He would've suspected Salomé of putting Varric up to this since they were becoming such close friends except that his sister genuinely seemed to not notice how that always happened…which just made it all the more infuriating. Instead, Carver figured that Varric was just doing it to annoy him. And then, of course, there was the fact that Varric himself had only agreed to let Carver come along because it was Salomé's condition for embarking on the partnership for the expedition. Oh, he did so love being humored.

His uncle came into the main room then and blinked to see him. "Oh, I thought you were your mother."

"Where is she?" Carver inquired.

Gamlen rolled his eyes. "Trying to get an audience with the viscount again, what else?"

Carver frowned at that. They really needed to hurry up and raise the fifty sovereigns to pay for their part of the expedition and so he and Salome were out quite a lot and consequentially hadn't been paying much attention to his mother's comings and goings. "Has she spent a lot of time on that?"

"She's been down there seeking an audience for hours every day this week," Gamlen replied, shaking his head in irritation.

Carver felt a pang of guilt for not really noticing how much work his mother was putting into this mad endeavor as well as the fact that he wasn't even remotely enthusiastic about it. Sure, it would be nice to have a better place to live than this but that didn't mean that they had to go chasing after ghosts. How could they ever move on if all they did was try to relive the past?

"She just hasn't accepted the fact that it's a useless endeavor," Gamlen opined, sounding bitter. "The Amell name doesn't mean a damn thing anymore and sooner or later she's going to have to face reality and accept that."

Saloméhated Gamlen, Carver knew. Oh, she never said – he was letting them live with him, after all – but it was obvious just the same. His mother was angry and disappointed in him. Carver…wasn't quite sure. While he couldn't deny that it would have been nice if he hadn't had to waste a year acting as a common smuggler (and an inferior one to his sister according to everyone who actually remembered him) and didn't have to live in the slums, things with Gamlen weren't quite that simple.

For all that Bethany resembled their mother (in looks as well as temperament as Salomé had inherited their father's blonde hair) more, Salomé held the same spot in the family as the favorite. And while Carver knew that both of his parents had loved him dearly, he was also the un-favorite of the family. Salomé and Bethany were such wonderful mages. Salomé was so strong and confident while Bethany was so sweet and reasonable. He was…he was reckless, he supposed, and the one who wasn't hunted. And he never seemed to compare.

That was how it was with Gamlen, wasn't it? A good deal of the family fortune had been spent doing something or another for his brother and then the sister who had run off without a backwards glance had inherited most of the estate while he was to receive only a small stipend based on what _she_ thought he should have. And Gamlen had been the one to take care of his father in the end but all he could see was the favorite.

Carver's mother had been relieved to learn that her parents hadn't died angry and he could appreciate that. He didn't know how he'd be able to live with the thought of his own parents hating him, after all. Salome had been furious that Gamlen had spent the money and Carver? Well…he had begun to see some unsettling similarities.

There was no doubt that Gamlen _should_ have at least written to his mother to let her know the outcome of the will. Maybe she would have taken them all back to Kirkwall but he rather doubted it. There were a _lot_ of templars in Kirkwall, after all, and Ferelden had been reasonably safe. Since she hadn't, though, what was Gamlen supposed to do? Carver doubted that if it hadn't been for the Blight his mother ever would have returned and Gamlen had made it clear that he felt quite the same way. Was Gamlen supposed to just leave the fortune alone forever for a sister that would never be coming to claim it? Sure, he should have managed it more wisely but as the only Amell in Kirkwall it was practically his to spend.

The one thing that made it absolutely impossible to hate his uncle for what he had done with the estate was wondering what he would have done in Gamlen's place. What if Salomé had run off to a different country against their parents' wishes to marry someone they disapproved of and made it clear that she had no intention of coming back? What if something had happened to Bethany and he had been the only one to stay by his parents' sides as they lie dying? What if they hadn't cared about that because _precious Salomé_ was missing? What if they had left her everything?

Carver really didn't know the answer to those questions. Or maybe he did but didn't want to admit it.

His mother had insisted that she would never have done that to Gamlen and Carver was sure that his sister would say the same if asked. Yes, it was easy to see why they'd find it so easy to disparage and despise Gamlen but he just couldn't do it. He just saw too much of himself in the older man and that scared him.

Gamlen had been born into privilege and, regardless of how legitimate it was, had had control of a great fortune at one point. Carver really hoped he'd been joking about those qunari cheeses but either way he obviously hadn't been very good at managing the money and it was gone now. Now Gamlen lived near-poverty and seemed to owe a great deal to various criminal or otherwise unsavory elements.

Carver didn't want that to be him. He didn't want to be just another miserable old drunk one day, frustrated but unable to change anything. It wasn't like he wasn't trying because he was. He had applied for the guard but Aveline had all but turned him down herself. Some friend she turned out to be. He had done his best when he was a smuggler and continued to do so in whatever odd jobs they took on to finance their future expedition. Still, it was never enough. All anyone could ever see was Salomé. It sometimes seemed like he was never going to be anything other than Salomé's brother and while he knew that having a sister like Salomé had been a great advantage over the years, sometimes – increasingly often – he just wanted to be his own person, to find his own way.

Bethany and Salomé had always been extremely special mages and even though Bethany was dead now (why hadn't Salomé stopped her?) a shape-shifting dragon had apparently saved them all because of how very special she could tell that Salomé was. How was he really supposed to compete with that? How could anyone?

The problem with finding a life outside of being Salomé's brother was that he wasn't quite sure what kind of a life he wanted. He just needed some sort of purpose and since the guard wouldn't have him, he'd need to look elsewhere. The templars were right out because, however he was feeling towards her at the moment, he didn't want to do that to his sister. She'd see it as the ultimate betrayal and he'd have to be far more upset than he was now to even _consider_ the idea.

Soon, though, soon he'd have his purpose. Soon they were going down to the Deep Roads to kill some darkspawn and to become obscenely rich. Their immediate financial worries would be over and at last he'd have time to figure out where his life was going.

Soon.

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